1 - Concept of Business Intelligence

Running head : Concept of Business Intelligence

What , if anything , Distinguishes the Concept of `Business Intelligence` from `Sales Forecasting` , or `Knowledge Management` , or `Market Research` , or , for that matter , `Common Sense in Business

CONCEPT OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

In modern businesses , increasing standards , automation , and technologies have led to vast amounts of data becoming available . Modes and techniques of handling Business matter have been completely changed in this era of science and technology . Various new terms are being used for defining new techniques and methodologies for achieving optimum results . Business Intelligence (BI

) is in no way a new term but it has acquired new meanings . Innovative BI infrastructure and application could effectively address major business challenges and can achieve operational excellence and business impact . This is designed to focus on the concept of BI . The will make an endeavor to differentiate between BI and various other related concepts of business like Sales Forecasting , Knowledge Management , Market Research and common sense in the world of business . The will proceed by first defining all the concepts followed by their comparison with BI

WHAT IS BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Business Intelligence (BI ) is primarily analyzing the business information through a set of processes . It involves the use of technology for obtaining the desired information from these processes Basic purpose of acquiring information by any organization is to assess the business environment , carry out marketing research , make sales forecasting and conduct competitor analysis . Business Intelligence integrates all such concepts and contributes to the overall achievement of strategic goals and objectives of an organization . BI can be defined as genera of technologies and methodologies for collecting and saving the information in easily accessible format . This data is frequently used for making correct and timely decisions for enhancing the profitability . BI can also be defined as a network of system that provides access to all the required data for analysis and information to facilitate the decision-making process ( Business Planning ' 2005

SALES FORECASTING

Sales Forecasting is more or less a key input to a firm 's financial planning process . Sales forecasts are usually are based on external data related to historical experiences , statistical analysis , and consideration of various macroeconomic factors ( Sales Forecast 2005 . It can further be elaborated as the projections of likely sales given certain defined criteria and making defined assumptions (Kahn Adams , 2000 . Sales Forecasting can be differentiated from Business Intelligence in two perspectives . First , sales forecasting deals primarily with financial planning process . Second , it 's estimates are based on previous experiences related to sales in one particular area and assumptions about the future . The Business Intelligence on the other hand has a wider spectrum . It involves evaluation of all the physical processes of an organization , which may be related to any field . It focuses on factual data rather than speculations

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Knowledge Management (KM ) is a systematic business optimization strategy that is used to collect and communicate information necessary for the improvements in performance of various facets within an organization ( Differences between BI and...